Comments on: Adobe says you will not Photoshop images

By: William

William — Fri, 04 May 2007 01:58:44 +0000

Nice article, do you mind if I xerox a few copies for my friends?

By: Jonathan Schlaffer

Jonathan Schlaffer — Thu, 03 May 2007 01:01:18 +0000

Fascinating…

By: Phosphor

Phosphor — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:43:08 +0000

Oops…I lied.

I typed “Photoshop™” 12 times in 20 seconds.

My point stands, though.

By: Phosphor

Phosphor — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:40:46 +0000

>>>”it’s just too hard to add the copyright symbol in a post, it takes almost 10 seconds for each one so if I have to do it more than once, imagine the time I waste!”

Hmm… Start stopwatch:
Photoshop™
Photoshop™
{Photoshop™
Photoshop™
Photoshop™
Photoshop™
Photoshop™
Photoshop™
Photoshop™’
Photoshop™
P{hotoshop™
Photoshop™

I’m a hunt-n-pecker. I just typed “Photoshop™” 12 times in ten seconds. I even left in the typos for extra authenticity! ;•)

That’s a Mac for ya. Just mere toys. Some of us have great fun playing on our toys, and are pretty danged efficient with them.

Seriously, though…I’d be willing to bet a 21″ Cintiq that there’s some not-unsignificant faction of Adobe Corporate & Marketing that absolutely loves the fact that Photoshop has entered the international lexicon.
The public gerericization ofbrand names sure didn’t seem to cause the bottom to drop out of business done by Bayer (aspirin™), Kimberley-Clark (Kleenex™), Otis Elevator (Escalator™), Johnson&Johnson (Band-Aid™) or many other now-common, but trademark identities.

I understand Adobe’s position as well, but trying to chastise and threaten casual users really is a whole lotta negative hoo-hah over what is probably a good thing for the brand’s mindset saturation in the long term.

By: Jonathan Schlaffer

Jonathan Schlaffer — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:43:29 +0000

Thanks for clearing that up, John. I agree, Adobe has a right to defend it’s rights and trademarks and their company logos. But, even just suggesting the fact that you can’t use the noun and verb variations of Photoshop seems silly. I mean, no corporation could stop it, Google and in a different cirumstance Hormel with Spam.

I realize it may have just been legal positioning but if you ask me, it is kind of funny (though a somewhat serious matter).

By: John Nack

John Nack — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:45:16 +0000

Hi Jonathan,

You can of course use whatever term you’d like. My understanding from the legal folks is that according to copyright law, they’re obligated to mount a defense of the trademark. That is, if we don’t want to see “Microsoft Photoshop” down the line, the company has to make an effort to dissuade the “genericizing” of the name. Weird, maybe, but them’s the rules.